In a township in the southern metropolis of East London, South Africa, at least 22 young people were mysteriously found dead at a nightclub.

Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said on Sunday that members of the public alerted authorities to the occurrence at Scenery Park.

The bodies will be taken to state mortuaries, where relatives are expected to help identify the fatalities, according to Eastern Cape province health department spokesperson Siyanda Manana.

The circumstances surrounding their deaths are being investigated, Kinana said, adding that it was too early to ascertain the cause of death of the 18- to 20-year-olds.

"We will immediately begin autopsies in order to determine the probable cause of death, we are talking of 22 bodies right now," he said. 

Minister of National Police Bheki Cele burst into tears after leaving a morgue where remains were housed. He told reporters, it was an awful scene and that they were quite youthful.

"When you are informed they are 13 or 14 years old, and then you go to their place and see them, they appear to be 13 or 14 years old. It destroys you."

Local media showed police officers attempting to quiet a group gathering outside the club in the city, which is located on the coast of the Indian Ocean approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Johannesburg, the commercial center of South Africa.

Unathi Binqose, an official from the Eastern Cape community and safety department, ruled out a stampede as the cause of death.

"It's hard to imagine it was a stampede because there are no visible open wounds on the victims," Binqose remarked. 

Parents whose children did not spend the night at home have gathered and wish to enter the tavern in search of their children.

According to Binqose, the customers were students "celebrating pens down, a celebration organized after taking high school examinations."

DispatchLive, a regional local newspaper, said that "corpses are scattered across tables, chairs, and the floor with no visible evidence of injuries."

President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his condolences to the afflicted families and expressed his concern about the conditions under which young individuals, maybe under the age of 18, were permitted to congregate at the tavern. 

Ramaphosa said in a statement that once investigations end, the law must take its course.

"The call is on the parents to ensure their children's health, and the call is on the community to say we cannot allow our children to die," the president said.